Just a few days after being abandoned, “Sean” found himself at Bring Me Hope’s camp in Xi’an. For an eight year old, Sean was extremely withdrawn and quiet. He didn’t smile, respond to our questions or keep eye-contact with anyone for long.
Though half-way through the week of camp Sean really started to come out of his shell. He began smiling at us, playing along with games, and went down the huge water slide at the pool. We even began having to chase after him because he was so excited to explore and experience things at camp!
At the end of the week we were amazed at the change in Sean’s heart, seeing that he began to trust us and enjoy his week at camp. We see God’s provision for His life that at just the time he was abandoned, he was ushered into his new orphanage family with other children during a fun camp where he was told how loved and special he is.
Our translators all deserve gold stars as well. In tears, one translator read the following letter to his orphan buddy:
“I’m glad I know you in the camp. Although you couldn’t tell me “I love you” like other kids, I know you love me deeply. Because while we’re walking together, you hold my hand tightly. That’s enough!
I hope you can have a heart of love forever. Firstly, you have to learn to love yourself. Next, you must know how to love others. The power of love is limitless.
Maybe it’s above your ability to understand what I’m saying, although I’m sure you will know all one day.”
THANK YOU for praying for us! We know we have a big support system of friends and loved ones back home. Your heart has been with us the whole time.
Love,
The Xian Team
Four years ago Charlie came to a Bring Me Hope camp for the first time and spent a week with a family group. During that week Charlie told his life story and it was one that shocked all who heard it.
When Charlie was around 3 years old, his mother had a love affair and left her family for another man and Charlie was left in the care of his father, who was very poor. Charlie’s father managed to remarry with a woman who treated Charlie alright and she also bore a new baby sister for Charlie. But there was no love in his life. When the stepmother also left, Charlie’s family was destitute.
One night after eating in a restaurant Charlie’s father was unable to afford the bill, so he left Charlie’s infant sister as payment. Charlie didn’t understand until later that night that his father was not playing a joke but had really left behind his sister behind.
Soon after his father was at another hotel with Charlie and once again could not afford to pay his debt and planned to use Charlie as payment. This time the manager of the hotel called the police and Charlie’s father was taken into police custody while Charlie was sent to his orphanage. He was eight years old.
In the years after his abandonment Charlie suffered many disheartening events in his life including being teased because he was put in Kindergarten despite being such an advanced age. He was also mistakenly identified as mentally handicapped due to his mistaken placement in such younger classes.
In 2006 Charlie came to Bring Me Hope after being spotted by one of our workers who was visiting his orphanage. Since then he has become a repeat visitor and this year we were lucky enough to have Charlie visit us here in Yantai for a week. He was placed in a family group with Logan, another boy from his school, Crystal his translator and Marina, a volunteer from Canada.
While Charlie is shy to start, he is also very obviously curious about what is going on around him and there is no concealing the brightness in his eyes. The very first day he was one of the last of the kids to join in on the water-park, but once he got on and began to enjoy himself he was also the last to leave. During our trip to the indoor water-park Charlie was swimming and playing with all the kids and even picked a few different volunteers and translators to take turns riding down the inner tube slide with him.
Tuesday night the family groups were asked to answer a few simple questions: What do you hope for, what do you want to be when you grow up, and what do you worry about. Charlie’s biggest worry is much the same as any child his age: his future and his education. While most kids wonder about how they will succeed once they reach adulthood, Charlie’s worries are more close to his heart due to the fact that he was placed so far back in school and as a result he has fallen so far behind in his studies.
His idea of what he wants to be in the future reinforce the fear of his eventual ascension to manhood: he has no clear idea of what he wants to be, only that he wants to be rich and successfully. He does know that he does NOT want to be a beggar or a cleaner.
Despite these harsh realities that face him, Charlie’s heart is never far from others and that is part of what makes him so astounding. Despite the life he has led and the evil he has witnessed and suffered, he is a boy full of love. When asked about what he hoped for, his answer was simple: For the Bring Me Hope camps to get better and better.” When Marina asked him why, he said “So more kids can come and enjoy the camps and experience love!”
One of Marina’s highlights for the week was the trip to KFC on Thursday. The boys had ice cream and then got to have some chicken sandwiches and while they were eating Marina went shopping for some snacks and goodies for the boys to share. As everyone was leaving the KFC Charlie took Marina’s hand, looked up at her and said “I am very happy.” On the bus ride back to camp the other orphan in his family group, Logan, lost one of his treats and without hesitation Charlie shared his treats with Logan.
Charlie’s story is ongoing, as are the stories of the other hundreds of kids that have come through our camps. Their lives are hard and their needs are great, but hope is out there for them, as it is for everyone. Here is just a sampling of Charlie’s goodbye letter to Marina, a glimpse into the heart of a very strong and joyful young man.
“I know there is a long distance between Canada and China. I am very happy we are in a family.”
“It’s hard for me to say goodbye, I hope time can be frozen.”
“You are like my mother that love and care me. This is the most beautiful memory that I have ever had. What’s more, thank you sharing your story. I was inspired a lot. I believe on day I will be a Christian.”
Hi Friends and Family,
On a personal level, we have not had the best of weeks. So many lows – Luke’s camera and much of his equipment was stolen, and as you already know, Bryn’s file will not be released to us. Finally, Amy’s mom was moved to a nursing home on Friday. We feel as though we are under severe spiritual attack!
We have been amazed though that despite all this, by God’s grace, Camp has gone on very successfully. Translators’ lives have been changed in eternal ways, our volunteers are so kind and loving, and the children have been showered with a love they so desperately long for and eat up! One little guy wrote to his volunteer,
“When I get big, I will come and find you!”
One little girl who was at our camp last year as well, saw Tim walk in, jumped up from her place at the table, grabbed his hand and said,
“You come and sit by me!”
We are so blessed to witness and be a part of this whole wonderful process!
Thank you all!
Amy and Tim for all the Heddens
What happens when you have a group of willing volunteers, helpful translators, agreeable orphans and a big God? We found that it leaves you with a pretty seamless week of camp!
The children loved making pottery, running through the city fountains, and going to the pool with giant water slides, but sometimes our more meaningful camp moments happened when we were simply hanging out together.
The more intimate times of making bracelets for one another, reading bedtime stories together, and watching people perform in the camp talent show are precious moments. Like spending time with family around the dinner table, we didn't need anything fancy to enjoy one another.
One family group especially enjoyed a two-hour conversation about their life-stories. After the kids heard their volunteer’s story, one little boy asked, “Can you tell me more about Jesus?”
The Lord is opening hearts around here, young and old. We praise Him for all He is doing here in Xi’an.
Love, us.
In Yantai the word for week 3 was FLEXIBILITY! It seemed like a comedy of errors, as not only did we lose access to the swimming pool for the entire week, it also rained with some lightning and thunder thrown in for good measure, enough to throw out any plans we had for outdoor activities and disrupt the schedule of assemblies and meetings. Despite these obstacles to our plans, the staff, volunteers, translators and kids came together to have a blast of a week where we even managed to throw in a few surprises!
The kids arrived Monday afternoon and as we ushered them into the pool we were greeted with a shocking sight: the pool had gone from crystal blue to algae green! Not to be dissuaded from enjoying their time with us, the kids jumped into craft time while some of the staff rushed to set up the water-park.
he kids were hesitant to be the first to try the water-park, but after seeing some of the volunteers and translators give the waterslide a try, the kids jumped in line and all too soon it was pandemonium with jumps, somersaults and more than a few water-soaked king-of-the-hills.
Tuesday came in with a roar that would make any lion proud. Rain, lightning, thunder and the staff at the hotel telling us we would have to turn of the electric equipment before anything nearby struck us with lightning. While we had to shorten our assembly, we were able to lengthen family time and give an extra night for the kids to contemplate some questions about what they wanted to be in the future and what they thought it meant to be a man or a woman.
The storm didn’t disrupt all of our plans. In fact for the scavenger hunt it made things more interesting, as we extended the hunt between the two largest buildings of the resort, two buildings that are about 100 yards apart. In the rain that can be quite a run! The kids and their family groups disrupted a few massages and oxygen treatments as they searched for eight staff members hidden throughout the buildings, and after nearly an hour and a half of searching a winner was crowned!
Also as a result of the storm we got to try a new event. By midweek the skies were still dark and stormy so instead of risking a trip to the beach we found an indoor Waterpark. It had two huge tube-slides, one smaller tube and a huge rafting slide, plus a gigantic pool complete with hidden tunnel, a large fountain to run through and a smaller kiddie area for the younger campers to enjoy.
While the tube slides were somewhat troublesome to get through, especially for some of the larger staff members who kept getting stuck halfway down, the large raft slide became a hit both for those daring enough to ride down it and for the spectators who got to watch.
Many of our volunteers this week were Canadian citizens and they were very proud of where they come from! Thursday night they treated the kids to a song they had practiced both in English and in Chinese, and then gave a lesson on the differences between Canada and the rest of the world. The finale of this lesson was introducing the kids to hockey! The demonstration was well received, but the American volunteers got to stand up and challenge the Canadians to a quick match, and the Americans came out ahead, 1-0! But more exciting than any competition was seeing the kids in the hallways the next morning practicing hockey with their very own authentic Canadian hockey sticks!
So while the best plans may be changed or disrupted, we learned this week that love really does conquer all, and you don’t need sunshine or a swimming pool to be a family!
Other stories from Camp:
On Tuesday night we had to announce that television time needed to be limited because we were developing a severe couch potato problem with all the rain and so much time spent indoors. One translator explained that time with the TV. off could be spent in family groups talking, playing or sharing, one of Bekah’s boys reached for her hand and told her in Chinese “This makes so much sense! With the TV off I can spend more time with you!”
Teresa was having a rough week with one of her boys, Xia Dao, who liked to run around and cause trouble, always with a small grin on his face. On Wednesday during assembly they were singing together and for the first time he reached over on his own and took her hand. When she looked down at him, he looked back up and smiled at her.
During our weekly trip to the local KFC Lydia was having ice cream with her boys, both of whom were taller than her by over a foot. Lydia asked the boys if they had a highlight from the week so far and her biggest boy Tim answered immediately: “Right now, because we are all eating like a family.” and her other boy, John, agreed.
The first day of camp we had water-park for the kids and at first Patti’s two boys, both around the age of ten, were hesitant to climb on board. Patti showed them by getting on the slide herself and after watching her have fun, the two boys jumped in line with her. After a few minutes together on the slide she had bonded with the boys and they would be inseparable the remainder of the week.
This week the scavenger hunt was extended to include two entire buildings and eight separate items, and to add even more difficulty it was pouring rain the entire time. Becca and her family group jumped at the opportunity and found all the items first and won together. Not only did they enjoy winning together, they were also able to enjoy their favorite ice creams at KFC as a family.
During the slumber party on Thursday night the boys were doing card tricks, having arm-wrestling contests and eating all kinds of junk food. In the midst of all this noise and revelry I heard a couple of the biggest boys in the group wandering around the room singing softly: “Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful day!”
One of the character lessons we have been teaching this year is the story of Joseph, a young man who is abandoned by his family in a faraway land and there comes to great power and responsibility. At camp we had our very own Joseph this week, a young man named Steve. At the age of six Steve was told to wait on a train while his parents took his sister to the restroom. Hours later and miles away Steven was still on the train, but his family never returned for him and he ended up in an orphanage. Now Steve is 17 and has been trained as a design artist. One of the camp sponsors, Terry, a manufacturer who also produces our t-shirts, visited camp and one of our Canadian volunteers, Michael, introduced Terry to Steve. After hearing his story and hearing from Michael what a good man Steve is striving to become, Terry offered Steve a job in one of his factories!
Like a refreshing summer rain storm, week two of camp has come and gone in Xi'an.
We were yet again blessed with a group of volunteers from all over the world. The Knipe family of Florida were especially excited to spend the week with children from their adopted daughter's orphanage!
A six year old boy named Wei Wei grabbed all of our hearts. He was blind and very small, but reminded us that no child is insignificant.
We're grateful for another fantastic week! Thank you for lifting us up!
With love,
The Xi'an team
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Dear Friends and Family,
We can say "Hurray!" for week 2 - not that it's over (hah!), but very successful and fun! We had another amazing group of 16 beautiful children. Everyone connected well with their kids and played hard. Our goodbye party, complete with a beautiful cake for eating (not throwing, a typical Chinese tradition) was filled with many heart-felt words of love, affection, and disappointment at having to leave. Here a a couple of quotes from the kids to their foreign volunteers:
"When you said, 'I love you' to me, although I didn't have enough courage to speak out, I did say it in my heart."
"Hello, beautiful like flowers, my sister. This week is the happiest time in my life."
"Every day you take me to eat ice cream. That's a happy memory in my life. Every day in the camp, I was so happy."
The kids definitely say it the very best!
Blessings,
The Hedden family
This week the Yantai camp went from a preschool to a high school! While we still had a couple of younger kids, the majority were teenagers! We were also once again blessed with an abundance of boys, which made things more complicated for our female volunteers and translators. But they stepped up and loved their boys like the sons, nephews, or in some cases bigger brothers they might have been.
We had one minor visit to the hospital, but thankfully it turned out to be a precautionary step rather than a necessary one. A young boy who had a small lump on his cheek that was at first feared to be mumps turned out to have a single cavity! He was able to return the same day with a smile and a clean bill of health for the week.
Since we had so many larger boys pool time was a much more active endeavor than the previous week, and the small ball games and swimming lessons were overtaken by water fights, splash wars and a game of keep-away that eventually devolved into a full contact game of “tackle the guy with the ball!” Speaking of water-based events, we were able to get our waterpark up and running and it was a big hit. A giant waterslide led to flips, slips, jumps, push wars, water hose battles ad a few accidental trips downward. The kids had good times pushing their buddies down the slides, and the buddies had fun chasing their kids back up to ride again.
Unfortunately the trip to the amusement park was cancelled for logistical reasons, but it was replaced with a new game for the camp, a scavenger hunt through the dorms that turned out to be really popular with the kids and the adults.
Staff members on different floors were holding candy and glowsticks, and three rice crispy treats for three lucky and quick scavenger hunters. Despite having so many big kids at the camp, it turned out to be the youngest team that was fastest as Carm, Spring, Casey and their two buddies Ya Ya, who is eight and Bai Bai who is six gathered up all six items and returned to win the prize: sodas for their next two meals.
A big event for the camp this week was the beach. We tried out a different one and found not only a better spot for swimming, but also a place to take rides on jet skis and power boats! Most of the kids had never been to the ocean and now we didn’t just get them into the sea, we took them speed along on top of it! A big highlight for everyone was a powerboat tour along the coast of Yantai that included views of cliffsides, cliff top temples and lots of dips and turns along the way.
There were the usual moments of tears and close calls, but also lots of joys and excitement as the kids just got to be kids. We learned a lot from hearing the stories of the children, and were astounded by the strength and optimism they showed even in the face of such hardships as they have all faced. We learned through life charts that some of the children had lost parents, others had been abandoned, but all came to us with open hearts and left with smiling faces.
Camp Stories:
Bai Bai was the youngest camper this week at about 5 years old, and despite being the smallest and youngest by leaps and bounds, she was also the most sassy. Her favorite word was “boo,” which means No. All week Carm and her translator have been telling Bai Bai “Wo Ai Ni” with little response. On the last night of camp Carm went in to say goodnight and gave Bai Bai a hug and said “Wo AI Ni.” Bai Bai looked up nonchalantly and replied simply “I know!” and smiled.
This week at camp there was a conference so our breakfasts were delivered to our rooms by staff members. The breakfasts consisted of meat buns, sweet pies and eggs that needed to be boiled in teapots. Suzanne did not know the eggs were raw when she went to have breakfast in her boys room. Lu Kai, the older boy, tried to warn her by saying “Sheng Da” which means “raw.” Suzanne thought he said eggs and cracked them open since she thought they were already hardboiled. She and her boys got a big shock and a good laugh when raw yolk splashed out of the eggs she had smashed together.
After craft time on Tuesday Bethany was walking with her buddy Donna and also with her younger sister, Riley. Donna was holding both of their hands and looked at them happily and said “You are my best friends.”
Patti is on her first trip to China and has never spoken Chinese, and her buddy Boi doesn’t speak any English. Patti was teaching Bo to play “go fish” and in the middle of the game he stopped her and taught her Chinese sign language for 1-10. Patti than taught him English sign Language for K, Q, and J ( King, Queen and Jack) and using sign language they were able to communicate and play together.
This week volunteer Vicky was assigned two boys of sixteen as her buddies and a translator who was so small the two boys considered her a little sister, even though she was six years older than they were! On the last day of camp as the boys were loading into the bus to go home Vicky signed “Wo AI Ni” to them, and was shocked and elated when both of the boys, who had been somewhat distant during the week, signed it back to her.
We were blessed to have 24 orphans and 12 volunteers take part in our first week of camp.
Our volunteers and staff teams are made up of people from Australia, Ireland, England, America, and China. We've had continuing jokes about not being able to understand each other, especially the Americans with the Aussie lingo. ;) But in all seriously (which is a rare thing of us,) we have loved our joined unity over our common goal of helping the children.
We had two groups of precious orphans with us this past week, most of which were energetic boys. They had a blast visiting Ocean World, running through the Xian fountain show, and swimming, of course.
One 15-year-old boy named Loren made an impression on us all; he has CP, though that sure doesn't inhibit his joy. He was constantly laughing at his silly 70-year-old English volunteer who sported goofy hats every morning.
Alan and Loren were quite a sight walking around the city of Xian together; with huge smiles on their faces, they would greet every (and I mean every) passerby with a big wave and a loud "NI HAO!" which means HELLO! They continued greeting people until they broke into a smile and give a little wave. The pair brought so much happiness to literally hundreds of city folk in Xian this week, but also to the rest of our camp and also to each other.
Memories and laughter characterize our week, and we are really grateful to the Lord for His provision and care to us.
With love,
The Xi'an Team
Dear Friends and Family,
We are off to an amazing start! It was an awesome, fun-filled, life-changing, blessing beyond words time. The children are always quiet when they first arrive, but in a matter of hours are laughing, playing, and enjoying being loved. When it was time to go, every single child, translator, and volunteer, was crying. We always go away each week blessed by what we (our WHOLE FAMILY) have experienced and witnessed, and wishing we had a huge house with lots of rooms.
Eight-year-old Annie was the one who captured us the most this week. She sobbed when she told her volunteer about her mom dying. And she later asked her volunteer if she could kiss her on the cheek. Another highlight was when 3 of the little boys walked into the water park. First their eyes bugged out, they threw their arms into the air, and then they screamed in excitement! What a thrill to witness this.
Next week we will double our numbers and our blessings. We have an amazing group all around - all so willing to love and be loved. We wish you all were here!
Love from China!
The Heddens